05.31.09

If the person who did this thinks he’s a Christian or actually doing the will of God, he is sorely mistaken. He is no more a Christian than the Westboro “Baptist”.
Christians are not to take the law into their own hands. We are required by Jesus to respect the law and use peaceful means to change the world.
I condemn the murder’s actions in the strongest possible terms. But more than that, God will hold him/her accountable for this hideous crime.
I found Dr. Tiller deplorable, but in no way was violence against him permissible in any form.
I ask each and all of you to keep the Tiller family in your prayers.
Remember Christians, if you hear of someone planning to commit a crime, especially one in the “name” of God, it is your duty to do everything possible to prevent it.

WICHITA, Kan. — Late-term abortion doctor George Tiller, a prominent advocate for abortion rights wounded by a protester more than a decade ago, was shot and killed Sunday at his church in Wichita, his attorney said.

A Wichita city official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk publicly about the case, said a suspect was taken into custody later Sunday. The official would not provide additional details. Earlier, police had said they were looking for a gunman who fled in a 1993 light blue Ford Taurus registered in the Kansas City suburb of Merriam, Kan.

Attorney Dan Monnat said Tiller, 67, was shot as he served as an usher during morning services at Reformation Lutheran Church. Monnat said Tiller’s wife, Jeanne, was in the choir at the time of the shooting.

The women’s clinic run by Tiller is one of three in the nation where abortions are performed after the 21st week of pregnancy, when the fetus is considered viable, and has repeatedly been the site of protests for about two decades. A protester shot Tiller in both arms in 1993, and his clinic was bombed in 1985.

Monnat said Sunday that Tiller had asked federal prosecutors to step up investigations of vandalism and other threats against the clinic out of fear that the incidents were increasing and that Tiller’s safety was in jeopardy.

Tiller’s attorneys issued a statement on behalf of his wife, four children and 10 grandchildren.

“Today’s event is an unspeakable tragedy for all of us and for George’s friends and patients. This is particularly heart-wrenching because George was shot down in his house of worship, a place of peace,” the statement said.

“Our loss is also a loss for the city of Wichita and women across America. George dedicated his life to providing women with high-quality heath care despite frequent threats and violence.”

Anti-abortion group Operation Rescue issued a statement denouncing the shooting.

“We are shocked at this morning’s disturbing news that Mr. Tiller was gunned down,” said Troy Newman, Operation Rescue’s president. “Operation Rescue has worked for years through peaceful, legal means, and through the proper channels to see him brought to justice. We denounce vigilantism and the cowardly act that took place this morning.”

Tiller remained prominent in the news in recent years, in part because of an investigation started begun by former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline, an abortion opponent.

“I am stunned by this lawless and violent act, which must be condemned and should be met with the full force of law,” Kline said in a written statement. “We join in lifting prayer that God’s grace and presence rest with Dr. Tiller’s family and friends.”

Prosecutors had alleged that Tiller had gotten second opinions from a doctor who was essentially an employee of his, not independent as state law requires. A jury in March acquitted Tiller of all 19 misdemeanor counts.

Abortion opponents also questioned then-Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ ties to Tiller before the Senate confirmed her this year as U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary. Tiller donated thousands of dollars to Sebelius over the years.

As one of the few doctors in the nation to perform late-term abortions, Tiller had been a high-profile target of abortion opponents for decades. His clinic, Women’s Health Care Services, was bombed in 1985, and Tiller was shot in both arms in 1993 by abortion protester Rachelle “Shelley” Shannon of Grants Pass, Ore.

In 1991, the Summer of Mercy protests organized by Operation Rescue drew thousands of anti-abortion activists to this city for demonstrations marked by civil disobedience and mass arrests.

After those protests, Tiller kept mostly to his heavily guarded clinic, although in 1997 he opened it to three tours by state lawmakers and the media.

Charges brought against three members of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense under the Bush administration have been dropped by the Obama Justice Department, FOX News has learned.

The charges stemmed from an incident at a Philadelphia polling place on Election Day 2008 when three members of the party were accused of trying to threaten voters and block poll and campaign workers by the threat of force — one even brandishing what prosecutors call a deadly weapon.

The three black panthers, Minister King Samir Shabazz, Malik Zulu Shabazz and Jerry Jackson were charged in a civil complaint in the final days of the Bush administration with violating the voter rights act by using coercion, threats and intimidation. Shabazz allegedly held a nightstick or baton that prosecutors said he pointed at people and menacingly tapped it. Prosecutors also say he “supports racially motivated violence against non-blacks and Jews.”

The complaint says the men hurled racial slurs at both blacks and whites.

A poll watcher who provided an affidavit to prosecutors in the case noted that Bartle Bull, who worked as a civil rights lawyer in the south in the 1960’s and is a former campaign manager for Robert Kennedy, said it was the most blatant form of voter intimidation he had ever seen.

In his affidavit, obtained by FOX News, Bull wrote “I watched the two uniformed men confront voters and attempt to intimidate voters. They were positioned in a location that forced every voter to pass in close proximity to them. The weapon was openly displayed and brandished in plain sight of voters.”

He also said they tried to “interfere with the work of other poll observers … whom the uniformed men apparently believed did not share their preferences politically,” noting that one of the panthers turned toward the white poll observers and said “you are about to be ruled by the black man, cracker.”

A spokesman for the Department of Justice told FOX News, “The Justice Department was successful in obtaining an injunction that prohibits the defendant who brandished a weapon outside a Philadelphia polling place from doing so again. Claims were dismissed against the other defendants based on a careful assessment of the facts and the law. The department is committed to the vigorous prosecution of those who intimidate, threaten or coerce anyone exercising his or her sacred right to vote.”

An often-overlooked piece of Palestinian behavior is key to the pursuit of peace. The Palestinians teach their people that no Jewish kingdom ever existed in the land they call Palestine, and that there was never a Jewish temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

Presumably some Palestinians know these teachings are false, but for most they are “facts” learned in school and taken for granted. These falsehoods are deliberately spread by the Palestinian leadership. To publicly deny them is to be viewed as disloyal, and anyone who tries to assert the truth risks retribution.

This is not just a matter of ancient history – it’s not merely an “alternative narrative” which needn’t be contested because it’s just talk. This false story helps explain the Palestinian refusal to make peace, because so long as Palestinians think the Jews were never here before, they will see Jews as a foreign colonial implant with no moral claim or right to the land. Modern Israel’s claim to land in Palestine depends on the Jews’ historic connection to the territory. Without this history, the nation of Israel would be merely foreign invaders, not a people who can be seen as returning home.

When a powerful foreigner comes and takes your territory just because he wants it, you have no honorable way to yield your rights. Accepting such a foreign invasion would be a cowardly sacrifice of honor. By insisting that this is what happened, the Palestinians’ leaders are in effect burning their bridges behind them, so that their people will be forced by their honor to fight on, and prevented from making an honorable peace.

The Palestinian leadership’s willingness to look foolish by denying well-known historic facts – including basic Christian history – demonstrates the importance to them of denying their people the moral and psychological basis for an honorable peace.

THE UNITED STATES CAN make an important step toward peace by publicly assuring the Palestinians that there were indeed ancient Jewish kingdoms in the land, and a Jewish temple on the Temple Mount before the birth of Muhammad. There are plenty of Muslim sources that the US can use to teach these facts.

Denial of the Jews’ ancient connection to the land is much more important than Holocaust denial. Israel’s claim to the land has nothing to do with the Holocaust. The international decision that Palestine should be a Jewish homeland was made by the League of Nations a generation before the Holocaust. Jews claim the land based on their continuous emotional and religious attachment to it since ancient times – not as compensation for six million dead.

Since Palestinians and other Arabs care about honor, we should make it possible for them to recognize that there can be an honorable peace with the Jews. (Although there would still be Muslim objections to Jewish rule in Israel.)

Israeli diplomats should call on the US to end the Palestinians’ denial of history, even though the State Department apparently regards the truth as something offensive to Arabs.

What better public disagreement can Israel and the US have than a disagreement about whether to allow the Palestinians to continue denying Jewish history? What better diagnostic tool can there be to determine when Palestinians are truly ready to live with Israel than looking at whether they are willing to acknowledge the Jews’ connection to the land?

If the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 is passed into law, then this scenario could very easily come to pass:

If an exhibitionist flashes a woman, and she responds by slapping him with her purse, at best, he would be charged with a misdemeanor while she, under the verbiage of this law, has committed a federal felony hate crime.

Also…

In committee hearings Democrats admitted that a Christian pastor could be prosecuted under the law if he spoke biblically against homosexuality, someone heard the comments and then committed a crime.
“Under [this law] the speech of a criminal defendant and the mere membership of the defendant in a given group may be used as evidence of his or her biased motive”.

And on top of all that…

There’s already an effort to list pro-family organizations “alongside several neo-Nazi groups … to create guilt by the artificial manufactured appearance of association”.

And finally…

The law gives protection for all 547 forms of sexual deviancy or ‘paraphilias’ listed by the American Psychiatric Association. Democrats defeated an amendment to the law that stated “the term sexual orientation as used in this act or any amendments to this act does not include pedophilia.” They also unanimously defeated an amendment that would offer hate crimes protection for U.S. military veterans who were attacked because of their service.

Christians, if this bill is allowed to become a law, we are in for a very rough time of it.

WASHINGTON – Barack Obama has promised the mother of Matthew Shepard fast action in the U.S. Senate to approve a “hate crimes” bill that critics say would establish the first special legal protections for pedophiles and those with an array of other sexual proclivities.

Judy Shepard, the mother of a murdered homosexual, visited the White House to lobby for H.R. 1913, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009, now residing in the Senate after approval in the House.

The White House issued an official comment on the meeting: “The President thanked Ms. Shepard for her work on the hate crimes bill and reiterated his commitment to ensuring that the Senate finalize the bill and act swiftly.”

Critics call the bill “The Pedophile Protection Act”.

Last week, a Texas pastor wrote an open letter to the U.S. Senate, asking someone, anyone, to filibuster the pending “hate crimes” legislation and stop what he calls a “maddening march to the destruction of our First Amendment right to freely practice our religion.”

As WND has reported, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 would provide special protections to homosexual people but leave Christian ministers open to prosecution should their teachings be linked to any subsequent offense, by anyone, against a homosexual person.

WND first reported on what has become widely known as “The Pedophile Protection Act” last month, raising nationwide alarm that has already generated hundreds of thousands of individual letters of protest to members of the U.S. Senate.

Rep. Louis Gohmert, R-Texas, and Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, said the only chance to defeat the legislation was for a massive outpouring of opposition from the American people.

“If you guys don’t raise enough stink there’s no chance of stopping it,” Gohmert said on a radio program with Porter. “It’s entirely in the hands of your listeners and people across the country. If you guys put up a strong enough fight, that will give backbone enough to the 41 or 42 in the Senate to say we don’t want to have our names on that.”

An analysis by Shawn D. Akers, policy analyst with Liberty Counsel said the proposal, formally known as H.R. 1913, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act bill in the House and S. 909 in the Senate, would create new federal penalties against those whose “victims” were chosen based on an “actual or perceived … sexual orientation, gender identity.”

Gohmert warned Porter during the interview that even her introduction of him, and references to the different sexual orientations, could be restricted if the plan becomes law.

“You can’t talk like that once this becomes law,” he said.

He said the foundational problem with the bill is that it is based on lies: It assumes there’s an epidemic of crimes in the United States – especially actions that cross state lines – that is targeting those alternative sexual lifestyles.

“When you base a law on lies, you’re going to have a bad law,” he said. “This ‘Pedophilia Protection Act,’ a ‘hate crimes’ bill, is based on the representation that there’s a epidemic of crimes based on bias and prejudice. It turns out there are fewer crimes now than there were 10 years ago.”

He said he fought in committee and in the House, where it was approved 249-175, to correct some of the failings, including his repeated requests for definitions in the bill for terms such as “sexual orientation.”

Majority Democrats refused, he said. He said that leaves the definition up to a standard definition in the medical field, which includes hundreds of “philias” and “isms” that would be protected.

Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., a “hate crimes” supporter, confirmed that worry, saying: “This bill addresses our resolve to end violence based on prejudice and to guarantee that all Americans regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability or all of these ‘philias’ and fetishes and ‘ism’s’ that were put forward need not live in fear because of who they are. I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this rule…”

Obama, supported strongly during his campaign by homosexual advocates, appears ready to respond to their desires.

“I urge members on both sides of the aisle to act on this important civil rights issue by passing this legislation to protect all of our citizens from violent acts of intolerance,” he said.

But Gohmert pointed out that if an exhibitionist flashes a woman, and she responds by slapping him with her purse, he has probably committed a misdemeanor while she has committed a federal felony hate crime.

“That’s how ludicrous this situation is,” Gohmert said.

Akers’ analysis said the bill would result in the federalization of “virtually every sexual crime in the United States.” And he said it appears to be part of an agenda that would relegate pro-family and traditional marriage advocates into the ranks of “terrorists.” Critics also have expressed alarm because in committee hearings Democrats admitted that a Christian pastor could be prosecuted under the law if he spoke biblically against homosexuality, someone heard the comments and then committed a crime.

“Under [the plan] the speech of a criminal defendant and the mere membership of the defendant in a given group may be used as evidence of his or her biased motive,” Akers said.

He said there’s already an effort afoot in the U.S. to list those pro-family organizations “alongside several neo-Nazi groups … to create guilt by the artificial manufactured appearance of association.”

During arguments in the House while the plan was being adopted, lawmakers pointed out the representatives were voting for protection for “all 547 forms of sexual deviancy or ‘paraphilias’ listed by the American Psychiatric Association.”

Porter cited the amendment offering from King in committee that was very simple: “The term sexual orientation as used in this act or any amendments to this act does not include pedophilia.”

But majority Democrats refused to accept it.

“Having reviewed cases as an appellate judge, I know that when the legislature has the chance to include a definition and refuses, then what we look at is the plain meaning of those words,” explained Gohmert. “The plain meaning of sexual orientation is anything to which someone is orientated. That could include exhibitionism, it could include necrophilia (sexual arousal/activity with a corpse) … it could include urophilia (sexual arousal associated with urine), voyeurism. You see someone spying on you changing clothes and you hit them, they’ve committed a misdemeanor, you’ve committed a federal felony under this bill. It is so wrong.”

Republicans in the House also attempted to amend the bill to offer hate crimes protection for U.S. military veterans who were attacked because of their service. Democrats unanimously rejected the amendment.

His most self inflated royalness, Emperor Obama I, is bound and determined to seize as much control as possible. His use of corrupt groups, like ACORN, to participate in the next census, while excluding ones that might hurt his cause, is just one more step to stripping more power away from Republicans and Independents and giving it to him and his cronies.

The U.S. Census Bureau, reflecting what apparently is becoming a political position that involves more than one federal agency, has listed “hate groups,” “law enforcement” “and “anti-immigrant groups” among those that would be refused permission to become a partner with the 2010 Census.

The news comes in a series of documents obtained by Judicial Watch under the Freedom of Information Act about the census operations.

WND previously reported when the Department of Homeland Security released an “extremism” report that warned local law enforcement officers nationwide to watch
out for “potential terrorists” including those who:

* Oppose abortion

* Oppose same-sex marriage

* Oppose restrictions on firearms

* Oppose lax immigration laws

* Oppose the policies of President Obama regarding immigration, citizenship, and the expansion of social programs

* Oppose continuation of free trade agreements

* Are suspect of foreign regimes

* Fear Communist regimes

* Oppose a “one world” government

* Bemoan the decline of U.S. stature in the world

* Are upset with loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs to China and India, and more

At the time, a lawyer pursuing a lawsuit against Department of Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano over the “extremist” report said he was not reassured by her later promise to “reword” the document.

“She says, ‘Well, we’re going to reword the document – and we’re going to make it more precise,'” Richard Thompson, president of the Thomas More Law Center, told WND. “That’s scary because we know they are still going to maintain some kind of targeting for various people that she’s never apologized to or never retracted [her accusations].”

At issue is the agency’s “Rightwing Extremism” report called “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment.” WND has posted the report online.

The report linked returning veterans with the possibility of terrorism and when it was released, created such a furor for Napolitano she has given several explanations for it, including that she would have reworded the report and that it was issued by a rogue employee.

Thompson said no apology had been offered to most of the members of the various groups on which the government was painting a bull’s-eye.

Now come the documents from the Census Bureau, which said it wants to work with groups that “partnered” with the census in 2000, various other “national organizations” and other groups that “served one of the ‘hard to count’ clusters.”

The list of banned groups was found in an e-mail from Barbara A. Harris, the chief of the agency’s program for partnering with outside groups, to other staff members. She said the “criteria for NOT partnering with a group” included a failure to have worked with the organization in 2000, to be a national organization or other factors

Her note then said “hate groups” were not eligible, nor were “law enforcement, anti-immigrant groups, (or) any groups that might make people fearful of participating in the census.”

The documents indicate, “there may be an ideological agenda at work, in a discriminatory effort to keep conservatives away,” he suggested. “What’s a real slander is to suggest that the Fraternal Order of Police may be the equivalent of a hate group.”

The census, he said, should be politically neutral, counting numbers, not political opinions.

“One can be opposed to illegal immigration and you should be able to partner with the government,” he said. “It screams out violations of the First Amendment.”

He admitted the list probably “unfairly” lists law enforcement officers along with anti-immigrant groups. But he said the choice of groups with which to work is important, because there are population groups who, for example, don’t trust law enforcement, or don’t trust members of “anti-immigrant” groups.

“We don’t want to partner with an organization that is blatantly trying to exclude one group (illegal immigrants) for one reason or another,” he said.

Bucker told WND the goal is to count every living person in the United States at the time of the census, and “negative reactions” from members of the groups to be counted should be factored.

However, he declined several opportunities to answer WND questions about the Census Bureau’s partnership with groups such as ACORN, whose members repeatedly have been accused of illegal election activities, and whether there are population groups in the U.S. who would react negatively toward activities by that “partner.”

“All we’ve asked ACORN to do is simply share the word,” he said.

But according to Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, among the 126 pages of documentation obtained from the government is confirmation of the high level of influence that ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, has in the 2010 Census.

Judicial Watch said the documents describe 18 different areas of responsibility that ACORN asked to be given.

The Obama administration has downplayed ACORN’s involvement, saying the organization with which Obama worked earlier in his political career, would be allowed to “recruit” census workers.

But the documents show that ACORN also is an “executive level” partner with the ability to “organize and/or serve as a member on a Complete Count Committee.”

The census documents regarding ACORN also show the organization also signed up to “encourage employees and constituents to complete and mail their questionnaire; identify job candidates and/or distribute and display recruiting materials; appoint a liaison to work with the Census Bureau; provide space for Be Counted sites and/or Questionnaire Assistance Centers, sponsor community events to promote participation in the 2010 Census.”

The documents also show the Census Bureau wants ACORN to teach other organizations about the process, Judicial Watch said.

“Given its history of illegal activity and fraud, ACORN should be nowhere near the 2010 Census,” said Fitton. “And shame on the Obama Commerce Department for continuing to demonize conservatives by lumping together law enforcement and anti-immigration groups with ‘hate groups.’ This discriminatory policy raises First Amendment concerns. Indeed, these documents provide further evidence that the Obama administration is politicizing the 2010 Census.”

U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, meanwhile, has called for congressional hearings into ACORN’s finances that apparently includes a procedure called a “forensic audit.”

05.28.09

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.

Texas HB 824 has moved out of committee and is expected to be voted on shortly. The bill targets children as young as ten years of age who are allegedly guilty of hate crimes. [Jonathan Saenz of the Texas-based Free Market Foundation] explains how the law might be applied.

“If they committed some crime and it had to do with the issue of ‘sexual preference’ — particularly the issue of homosexuality — they could be punished,” he says, “and a judge could order them to go to a program where they have to accept the other side and accept the views of homosexuality.”

According to Saenz, even more punishment could be doled out. “[T]he judge could [also] order them to do community service where they have to do a project in the homosexual community that serves the homosexual community’s interest,” he offers.

Saenz says the law would apply to children who have committed an act of arson or graffiti, or have assaulted another person based on sexuality. But he fears the law could potentially be misapplied and misused.

When asked by WND White House correspondent Les Kinsolving why the president, who has pledged transparency in his administration, would not release his long-form birth certificate to establish his constitutional eligibility for office, spokesman Robert Gibbs guffawed in unison with members of the Washington press corps about the concerns of 400,000 petitioners who have demanded it.

“Are you looking for the president’s birth certificate?” he asked incredulously. “Lester, this question in many ways continues to astound me. The state of Hawaii provided a copy with the seal of the president’s birth. I know there are apparently at least 400,000 people – (laughter) – that continue to doubt the existence of and the certification by the state of Hawaii of the president’s birth there, but it’s on the Internet because we put it on the Internet for each of those 400,000 to download. I certainly hope by the fourth year of our administration that we’ll have dealt with this burgeoning birth controversy.”

It was the first time any member of the press corps has publicly asked a member of the administration a question directly related to Obama’s constitutional eligibility for office as a “natural born citizen.”

The question comes as the controversy is heating up nationally – sparked in part by a new billboard campaign asking the question: “Where’s the birth certificate?” The campaign has also raised more than $50,000 in contributions from the public.

The ongoing petition campaign was launched several months ago by WND Editor and Chief Executive Officer Joseph Farah. Just last week, Farah announced the billboard campaign to raise public awareness of the fact that Obama has never released the standard, “long-form” birth certificate that would show which hospital he was born in, the attending physician and establish that he truly was born in Hawaii, as his autobiography maintains.

The “Certification of Live Birth” posted online and widely touted as “Obama’s birth certificate” does not in any way prove he was born in Hawaii, since the same “short-form” document is easily obtainable for children not born in Hawaii. The true “long-form” birth certificate – which includes information like the name of the birth hospital and attending physician – is the only document that can prove Obama was born in Hawaii, but to date he has not permitted its release for public or press scrutiny.

Oddly, though congressional hearings were held to determine whether Sen. John McCain was constitutionally eligible to be president as a “natural born citizen,” no controlling legal authority ever sought to verify Obama’s claim to a Hawaiian birth.

05.27.09

In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites had come out of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, the second month, he began to build the temple of the LORD.

The temple that King Solomon built for the LORD was sixty cubits long, twenty wide and thirty high. The portico at the front of the main hall of the temple extended the width of the temple, that is twenty cubits, and projected ten cubits from the front of the temple. He made narrow clerestory windows in the temple. Against the walls of the main hall and inner sanctuary he built a structure around the building, in which there were side rooms. The lowest floor was five cubits wide, the middle floor six cubits and the third floor seven. He made offset ledges around the outside of the temple so that nothing would be inserted into the temple walls.

In building the temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built.

The entrance to the lowest floor was on the south side of the temple; a stairway led up to the middle level and from there to the third. So he built the temple and completed it, roofing it with beams and cedar planks. And he built the side rooms all along the temple. The height of each was five cubits, and they were attached to the temple by beams of cedar.

The word of the LORD came to Solomon: “As for this temple you are building, if you follow my decrees, carry out my regulations and keep all my commands and obey them, I will fulfill through you the promise I gave to David your father. And I will live among the Israelites and will not abandon my people Israel.”

So Solomon built the temple and completed it. He lined its interior walls with cedar boards, paneling them from the floor of the temple to the ceiling, and covered the floor of the temple with planks of pine. He partitioned off twenty cubits at the rear of the temple with cedar boards from floor to ceiling to form within the temple an inner sanctuary, the Most Holy Place. The main hall in front of this room was forty cubits long. The inside of the temple was cedar, carved with gourds and open flowers. Everything was cedar; no stone was to be seen.

He prepared the inner sanctuary within the temple to set the ark of the covenant of the LORD there. The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty wide and twenty high. He overlaid the inside with pure gold, and he also overlaid the altar of cedar. Solomon covered the inside of the temple with pure gold, and he extended gold chains across the front of the inner sanctuary, which was overlaid with gold. So he overlaid the whole interior with gold. He also overlaid with gold the altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary.

In the inner sanctuary he made a pair of cherubim of olive wood, each ten cubits high. One wing of the first cherub was five cubits long, and the other wing five cubits—ten cubits from wing tip to wing tip. The second cherub also measured ten cubits, for the two cherubim were identical in size and shape. The height of each cherub was ten cubits. He placed the cherubim inside the innermost room of the temple, with their wings spread out. The wing of one cherub touched one wall, while the wing of the other touched the other wall, and their wings touched each other in the middle of the room. He overlaid the cherubim with gold.

On the walls all around the temple, in both the inner and outer rooms, he carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers. He also covered the floors of both the inner and outer rooms of the temple with gold.

For the entrance of the inner sanctuary he made doors of olive wood with five-sided jambs. And on the two olive wood doors he carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers, and overlaid the cherubim and palm trees with beaten gold. 33 In the same way he made four-sided jambs of olive wood for the entrance to the main hall. He also made two pine doors, each having two leaves that turned in sockets. He carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers on them and overlaid them with gold hammered evenly over the carvings.

And he built the inner courtyard of three courses of dressed stone and one course of trimmed cedar beams.

The foundation of the temple of the LORD was laid in the fourth year, in the month of Ziv. In the eleventh year in the month of Bul, the eighth month, the temple was finished in all its details according to its specifications. He had spent seven years building it.

Speaking at a conference organized by website Islam Online in Doha, Qatar, Salah stated his belief that Netanyahu may try to build the Jewish Temple – which the Islamic preacher called “the false temple” – during his current term after allegedly failing to do so in his first term as Prime Minister in the late 1990s.

“I ask that those with the power to make the political decision hear me,” Salah exhorted his audience. “Netanyahu is about to build the false Temple, and when the Jews build the Temple they will do so upon the ruins of the Al-Aqsa [Mosque].”

Immediate danger
The danger to Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa mosque is “tangible and immediate,” Salah said, echoing similar dramatic statements he has made over the years. “I warn, I ask for aid and I call out,” he said. “We should expect deadly surprises that could hurt Jerusalem in general and Al Aqsa in particular,” he said. “We live in years that will determine if Jerusalem survives and in Al Aqsa will remain standing,” he added.

Salah said that in an effort to prepare world opinion for the realization of its goals in Jerusalem, Israel sends tourists to the Al Aqsa mosque and tells them that it was built upon the ruins of the Jewish Temple.

The solution to “the threat against Jerusalem,” according to Salah, is a complete mobilization of the Arab world, including the religious imams, who need to act and “recruit the masses.” He asked Muslim scholars to pronounce edicts that will force “the Muslim nation and its leaders to confront their duty towards the problem of Jerusalem and Al Aqsa.”

“A thousand politicians can talk without changing a thing,” Salah said. ‘One religious sage can do what the politicians cannot carry out.”

The Jewish Temple was first built by King Solomon (Shlomo) about 3,000 years ago. It served as the spiritual center of the Hebrew nation and as a place of national pilgrimage and sacrifice. Serviced by the priestly class (Kohanim) and Levites, the Temple contained the Seven-Branched Menorah and housed the golden Holy Ark within a room known as the Holy of Holies.

Coming soon: the Third Temple
The First Temple was razed by Babylonian conquerors, rebuilt by Jews by permission of a Persian emperor, defiled by Greeks and then re-consecrated by the Hasmoneans, and burnt down again by Romans.

Jewish religion commands the Jews to rebuild the Temple as part of a Divine plan for the salvation of the Jewish people and the entire world, but Prime Minister Netanyahu, who is not considered observant, never has associated himself with efforts by Jews to pray on the Temple Mount.

Under the guise of due process concerns, congressional Democrats have opened the way for organizations with criminal histories to gain greater access to taxpayer funds. Exhibit A here is the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN), now under investigation in at least 14 states for voter registration fraud.

Earlier this month, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Rep. Barney Frank, D-MA, sponsored an amendment to the $140 million Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act. The Frank measure allowed organizations being investigated by state or federal authorities on corruption charges to receive federal funds as long as they avoid conviction. Frank argued that his amendment, which was approved by the House, protected the presumption of innocence in federal spending.

But federal ethics rules have long stipulated that either an actual or apparent conflict of interest can put a government employee at risk of prosecution for ethics violations. So, if the Frank amendment becomes law, the federal government will have a double standard, ignoring the presumption of innocence for its employees with apparent conflicts of interest, but extending the presumption to its funding recipients.

ACORN claims to be non-partisan, but it and its many affiliates have ardently supported Democratic incumbents and candidates at all levels of government. For example, the Obama campaign in 2008 paid more than $880,000 to Citizen Services Incorporated, an ACORN affiliate that helps organize get-out-the-vote efforts that always seem to focus on heavily Democratic precincts. Seen in this light, the Frank amendment has the look of a pay-back from grateful Democrats, especially since, as The Examiner has previously reported, ACORN is eligible for billions of dollars under the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) has crafted legislation to block ACORN from receiving such funding, but Frank and his Democratic colleagues are determined to block her effort. Only four Democrats voted against Frank’s amendment, which overturned an earlier amendment from Bachmann that would have precluded ACORN from receiving funds. This means 245 House members are on record supporting – or are unconcerned – about federal funding going to groups suspected of criminal behavior. “It is not only legitimate for Congress to decide the threshold for accessing taxpayer funds; it is incumbent upon us to do so,” Bachmann said. “And, for far too long, Congress has cavalierly distributed taxpayer money.” This is a shameful abdication of our fiduciary duties.” We couldn’t agree more.

Indeed, since January 20, 2009, the headlong rush to socialism–and some would contend worse–that Obama has engineered, aided and abetted by a sycophantic and obedient media and by a Congress that has completely forgotten the meaning of democracy, is truly frightening. Any one of the dozens of unconstitutional power-grabs and democratic abuses Obama’s fingerprints have been smeared across since the inauguration would have produced 130 decibel howls from liberals, the ACLU and the MSA had they been even suggested by a Republican. And yet, when committed by the weird combination Messiah/rocker/squatter at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, not a single raised left eyebrow is to be seen. Yikes.

Worse, the linkages and connections between and among Obama and people you’d not want your daughter dating and organizations you’d not want your son palling around with are becoming more and more troubling, a matter noted here both before and after last year’s general election.

If you doubt that, just consider as but one example, the unfolding, metastasizing tale of ACORN, that “community organizing” hydra which was the recipient of Obama’s tutelage–based, of course, on the teachings of Marx, Engels and Alinsky–before he entered public life. The “Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now,” or ACORN, now stands indicted or under criminal investigation in no fewer than fourteen states on charges of voter registration fraud. Not one . . . not two . . . not three . . . fourteen. Including (get this), Nevada at the hands of a Democrat Attorney General.

Whoa. If you’re under indictment by a Democrat in the same state that not only pins its economy on a business founded by Bugsy Siegel but also gave us Harry Reid, you know, as they say, you’ve got a problem.

Problematically, ACORN also stands poised to be a recipient of perhaps as much as $8 billion in federal taxpayer “stimulus” money under the socialistic, misleading and woefully misnamed (as are virtually all Democrat-sponsored bills) “American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.” That act, of course, was Obama’s out-of-the-gate pet project engineered not to stimulate the economy but rather designed instead to spread the tentacles of the government deeper and deeper into the fabric of the nation and its private enterprise businesses. What better way to “spread the wealth” than by redistributing it to favored persons and entities? And among the prime favored recipients of federal taxpayer dollars in this plan are “community organizing organizations” like ACORN. But there’s a fly in the ointment.

As reported in the Wall Street Journal by John Fund, because of the widening spectrum of indictments, criminal investigations and lingering aromas of fraud surrounding ACORN, Rep. John Conyers (D. Mich.), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, initially requested Representative Gerald “No Neck” Nadler (D. N.Y.), the Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, to hold a hearing on the organization and try to get to the bottom of these troublesome questions. Conyers characterized the charges against ACORN as “serious” and, apparently, Mr. Nadler initially agreed to consider the request. However, reports Fund, Nadler’s office now says there will be no hearing on ACORN “because Mr. Conyers has changed his mind.” Right.

Fund also reports: “Mr. Conyers’s office released a statement on Monday [May 18, 2009] saying that ‘after reviewing the complaints against ACORN, I [Conyers] have concluded that a hearing on this matter appears unwarranted at this time.'” A Democratic staffer told Fund he believes the House leadership put pressure on Mr. Conyers to back down. (Hmmm . . . who might be the leader of the House leadership these days?) Fund notes that Conyers’s office says it was “unaware of any contacts with House leaders.” That depends, of course, on what the definition of “unaware” is. Or, considering the House, the definition of “leader” for that matter. Read Fund’s article . . . it is good.

Meanwhile, the Republicans in the House proposed an amendment to another bill, the “Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act,” which would have precluded organizations under indictment from receiving taxpayer monies until a resolution of the charges. But, seeing that an entity that helped Obama’s occupation of the White House might lose out on taxpayer loot, the Democrats in the House, led by Congressperson Barney “Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are Financially Sound” Frank, and being a useful idiot totally unfamiliar with the phrase “where’s there’s smoke, there’s fire,” overrode the Republican amendment . . . which had previously passed with Frank’s support. The bill passed out of the House on a party-line vote–Republicans voting for transparency and truth, Democrats voting to perpetuate a cover-up and potential fraud–and will likely breeze through the Senate too, landing on the Squatter-in-Chief’s desk sometime next month.

So, ACORN’s eligibility (more on that concept later) to get its mitts on taxpayer dollars under the stimulus bill will remain intact, despite the indictments and criminal investigations that already exist and will likely continue to bloom like wildflowers after a rainstorm. Thanks to the Democrats. Now that, my friends, is community organizing.

“Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion! For behold, I am coming and I will dwell in your midst,” says the LORD. “Many nations shall be joined to the LORD in that day, and they shall become My people. And I will dwell in your midst. Then you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent Me to you. And the LORD will take possession of Judah as His inheritance in the Holy Land, and will again choose Jerusalem. Be silent, all flesh, before the LORD, for He is aroused from His holy habitation!” (Zechariah 2:10-13)

Congratulations, Nation of Israel, on the 42nd anniversary of the restoration of Jerusalem to Jewish rule. As I write this, the sounds of your celebrations drift up to me from inside the Old City. Fireworks will soon light up those ancient walls, and music will echo across the capital late into the night.

For thousands of years your forefathers longed, prayed and wept, faithfully nurturing their love for this city and daily expressing their belief in their ultimate and permanent return to Jerusalem.

For centuries, Zion lay desolate, like the land around her unwanted and uncared for, waiting for the return of the only people who ever treasured her and under whose hand she had once blossomed and thrived. She waited, too, as she still waits, for the day when the glory of the God of Israel will once more be manifested in her midst, and the nations of the world will come up to worship the King.

Sixty-one years ago, as your people lay besieged inside the Jewish Quarter, starving, cut off from the rest of the nation, fearful for their lives, hundreds of your sons and daughters risked and gave their lives to break through the enemy lines and save you. Eventually, painfully, you lost that battle.

Forty-two years ago, after 19 years of being so near and yet so far from the heart of the city, more of your sons risked – and many gave – their lives. And this time they secured your freedom.

And since 1967 Jerusalem – for so long love deprived -has been blooming and thriving once more. Under your proudly-waving blue and white flag, millions of people from around the world have been welcomed, and peoples of all faiths enjoy the freedom to make pilgrimage and to worship here.

The city appears in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) 669 times and Zion (which usually means Jerusalem, sometimes the Land of Israel) 154 times, or 823 times in all. The New Testament mentions Jerusalem 154 times and Zion seven times.

(It is mentioned not once in the Islamic Quran.)

Nonetheless, the non-Jewish world is united in the arrogant presumption that it has the right to dictate Jerusalem’s future. United Nations, European Union and dozens of diplomats’ cars drive all over the place (often paying little heed to Israel’s traffic laws) challenging the Jews’ right to the city. Relentlessly they plot its redivision and the handing over of half of it to the Muslim Arabs, who insist they have the right to it as the capital of their “Palestine” and whose leaders vow to sacrifice untold numbers of “martyrs” to “redeem” Jerusalem “in blood and fire.”

They will never succeed.

Jerusalem is the capital city of the State of Israel and the historic and biblical capital of the Jewish people. It has never, ever in the history of mankind, been the capital of any other nation or state.

Speaking today, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared: “United Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. Jerusalem was always ours and will always be ours. It will never again be partitioned and divided.”

Amen.

Yes rejoice, Israel. Celebrate, Jerusalem! All those who love Zion rejoice with you.

May God bless Israel, May God bless Jerusalem, and may His glory soon be seen again in this place.

A judge on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals who once boasted during a conference that it is at that level in the court system where “policy is made” has been named by President Obama to replace the retiring Justice David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court.

In a forum at the Duke University School of Law in 2005, Sonia Sotomayor said, “Court of appeals is where policy is made. And I know – and I know this is on tape and I should never say that because we don’t make law, I know. OK, I know. I’m not promoting it, and I’m not advocating it, I’m – you know. OK. Having said that, the court of appeals is where, before the Supreme Court makes the final decision, the law is percolating – its interpretation, its application.”

Sotomayor would replace the left-leaning Souter, and speculation was thick today whether she would – or even could – move the court further to the left.

In his announcement, Obama praised Sotomayor as “the kind of justice we need” on the Supreme Court.

He called her “an inspiring woman who I believe will make a great justice.”

She is the first candidate of Puerto Rican heritage named to the nation’s highest court. Born in the Bronx, the 54-year-old’s father was a tool-and-die worker who died when she was a child. Her mother, a nurse, raised Sotomayor and her brother.

Sotomayor was married in 1976 but was divorced after seven years.

According to Wendy E. Long, counsel to the Judicial Confirmation Network, Sotomayor is “a liberal judicial activist of the first order.”

Long described Sotomayor as thinking “her own personal political agenda is more important tha[n] the law as written,” and a Fox News commentator said she is neither a consensus-builder nor well-liked by her appellate panel co-workers.

Christian Broadcasting Network commentator David Brody warned the nomination could rebound on Obama.

“He may get her through because he has the numbers in the Senate but his poll numbers showing him as a centrist may take a hit. Keep an eye on Gallup,” he said.

However, because of Souter’s similar leanings, the nomination is unlikely to change the ideological bent of the court immediately.

Democrats have 59 votes in the Senate and would need 60 to clear a Republican filibuster. Also, according to Senate rules, at least one Republican would need to vote for her at the committee level.

Long said Sotomayor’s activism is “exactly what the president has talked about. He likes that. He thinks that liberal judges are so smart and so enlightened and have such great instincts about what policy should be that they should be making the decisions about policy for the rest of us.”

Long contends self-government is “destroyed” when unelected judges begin taking over the function of elected representatives.

Sotomayor was part of a panel on the 2nd Circuit that declined to rule on the merits of a major reverse-discrimination case regarding firefighters in New Haven, Conn. The case is currently in front of the Supreme Court.

“Judge Sotomayor basically buried their claims and tried to throw them out without even really analyzing these very important questions about quotas and reverse discrimination and fairness under the law,” according to Long.

Things are heating up on the Korean peninsula…again. The world is waiting to see what the Mad Man of Pyongyang will do next. As usual, the only response the U.N. made is to threaten sanctions, since they have worked so well in the past, NOT!!

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea launched a tirade Wednesday against world powers threatening to punish it for conducting its second nuclear test, saying it is not afraid of sanctions and calling South Korea’s decision to join an operation to prevent the spread of weapons a declaration of war.

The North also has reportedly restarted its weapons-grade nuclear plant. It staged a rally in its capital, Pyongyang, on Tuesday to celebrate the test.

The isolated communist regime said through its official news agency that it would respond with military action if South Korea tries to stop or search any of its ships as part of the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative.

“Those who provoke (North Korea) once will not be able to escape its unimaginable and merciless punishment,” the North’s official news agency said.

South Korea decided to join the anti-proliferation initiative on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, South Korea’s mass-circulation Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported Wednesday that U.S. spy satellites detected signs of steam at the North’s Yongbyon nuclear complex, an indication that it may have started reprocessing nuclear fuel.

The report, which could not be confirmed, quoted an unidentified government official. South Korea’s Yonhap news agency also had a similar report.

The move would be a major setback for efforts aimed at getting North Korea to disarm.

North Korea had stopped reprocessing fuel rods as part of an international deal. In 2007, it agreed to disable the Yongbyon reactor in exchange for aid and demolished a cooling tower at the complex.

The North has about 8,000 spent fuel rods which, if reprocessed, could allow it to harvest 13 to 18 pounds (six to eight kilograms) of plutonium — enough to make at least one nuclear bomb, experts said. North Korea is believed to have enough plutonium for at least a half dozen atomic bombs.

Further ratcheting up tensions, North Korea has test-fired five short-range missiles over the past two days, South Korean officials confirmed.

North Korea suggested that more missile tests could be planned, telling ships to stay away from waters off its west coast through Wednesday, according to South Korea’s coast guard.

The North’s moves have brought a wave of international reproach.

In New York, the U.N. Security Council is discussing a resolution that could include new sanctions.

Ambassadors from the five permanent veto-wielding council members — the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France — as well as Japan and South Korea are expected to meet again soon to work out the details.

Council members, after condemning the test on Monday, said they would follow up with a new legally binding resolution.

China and Russia, both allies of North Korea, slammed it for going ahead with the blast.

Moscow’s U.N. ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, who is also the Security Council president, said the 15-member body would begin work quickly on a new resolution, according to ITAR-Tass.

He declined to say if additional sanctions were discussed.

China also said it “resolutely opposed” the nuclear test. But it was unclear how far it would go in sanctioning its neighbor.

Experts said past sanctions have had poor results because they weren’t fully implemented and because North Korea is already one of the most isolated countries in the world.

Kim Sung-han, an international relations professor at Seoul’s Korea University, said U.N. resolution 1718, adopted after the North’s first nuclear test in 2006, has strong elements but has not been strictly observed.

He said the success of any sanctions would depend on how aggressively China implements them.

“It’s not going too far to say that China holds all keys in sanctions,” he said.

Details of Monday’s nuclear test may take days to confirm.

Russian defense officials said the blast was roughly as strong as the bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II and was stronger than North Korea’s first test in 2006. Other experts said that was probably an overestimate, and put the blast closer in strength to the first test.

North Korea seemed unconcerned by the condemnation.

A large crowd of Pyongyang residents, including senior military and party officials, gathered Tuesday in a stadium to celebrate the nuclear test.

Choe Thae Bok, a high-ranking party official, was quoted by North Korea’s official news agency as saying that the nuclear test “was a grand undertaking” to protect the country against “the U.S. imperialists’ unabated threat to mount a pre-emptive nuclear attack and (put) sanctions and pressure upon it.”

A North Korean newspaper, Minju Joson, said in a commentary Wednesday that Pyongyang does not fear repercussions.

“It is a laughable delusion for the United States to think that it can get us to kneel with sanctions,” it said. “We’ve been living under U.S. sanctions for decades, but have firmly safeguarded our ideology and system while moving our achievements forward. The U.S. sanctions policy toward North Korea is like striking a rock with a rotten egg.”

A victory for the traditional family against the homosexual activist, kind of, anyway. Apparently “marriages” made before the passage of Proposition 8 will remain in effect.
Don’t get me wrong; this was certainly a victory, but I have to agree with this commentator:“The proposition itself, which is now a part of the California constitution and has been since November 5, simply reads ‘only marriage between a man and a woman is valid and recognized in California,'” [Jim Garlow of Skyline Church in La Mesa] notes. “So how you take those simple 14 words and reconstruct them to justify the validation of 18,000 same-sex marriages — that is beyond me.”

SAN FRANCISCO — The California Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld same sex marriages that were already performed but upheld voters’ rights to ban gay marriage through the state constitution.

An estimated 18,000 gay couples tied the knot before the law took effect. The ruling suggests that gay couples can be afforded equivalent rights to heterosexual married couples but perhaps under a different name.

Gay rights demonstrators flooded the courthouse before the decision and immediately started protesting the ruling. Holding signs and many waving rainbow flags, they chanted “shame on you.” Many people also held hands in a chain around an intersection in an act of protest.

“It’s not about whether we get to stay married. Our fight is far from over,” said Jeannie Rizzo, 62, who was one of the lead plaintiffs along with her wife, Polly Cooper. “I have about 20 years left on this earth, and I’m going to continue to fight for equality every day.”

Rizzo and Cooper had argued that the Legislature should have approved the change to the California constitution because of the vote’s impact on the equal protection clause.

But Chief Justice Ron George, writing the 6-1 decision, said the people have a right, through the ballot box, to change their constitution.

“In a sense, petitioners’ and the attorney general’s complaint is that it is just too easy to amend the California constitution through the initiative process. But it is not a proper function of this court to curtail that process; we are constitutionally bound to uphold it,” the ruling said.

The court is the same one that last May ruled it unconstitutional to deny gay couples the right to marry. That led to the constitutional amendment offered on the ballot last November.

“After comparing this initiative measure to the many other constitutional changes that have been reviewed and evaluated in numerous prior decisions of this court, we conclude Proposition 8 constitutes a constitutional amendment rather than a constitutional revision,” the ruling said.

Gay rights activists say they plan to return to voters as early as next year with a bid to repeal Proposition 8.

So, as I suspected from the moment this proposition passed, the fight is not over.

Randy Thomasson of SaveCalifornia.com is only somewhat pleased with the court’s decision. He explains that Prop. 8 actually deals with same-gender marriages in a straightforward, retroactive manner — but the judges ignored that, he states.

“The only marriage in California that is valid or recognized [as valid] is a marriage between a man and a woman, quote, ‘regardless of when or where performed,'” he points out. “And that obviously wipes out the false marriages. But the judges, based in San Francisco, didn’t want to go there.”

In effect, says Thomasson, the court’s decision is an insult to people who went to the polls to vote for traditional marriage — and shows that the court has “gone with its own feelings and its own social agenda.”

05.26.09

“Have them make a chest of acacia wood—two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high. Overlay it with pure gold, both inside and out, and make a gold molding around it. Cast four gold rings for it and fasten them to its four feet, with two rings on one side and two rings on the other. Then make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. Insert the poles into the rings on the sides of the chest to carry it. The poles are to remain in the rings of this ark; they are not to be removed. Then put in the ark the Testimony, which I will give you.

“Make an atonement cover of pure gold—two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide. And make two cherubim out of hammered gold at the ends of the cover. Make one cherub on one end and the second cherub on the other; make the cherubim of one piece with the cover, at the two ends. The cherubim are to have their wings spread upward, overshadowing the cover with them. The cherubim are to face each other, looking toward the cover. Place the cover on top of the ark and put in the ark the Testimony, which I will give you. There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the Testimony, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites.

The upcoming home front drill, Turning Point 3, is based a scenario in which “a combined missile and rocket attack on Israel from all sides combined with terror attacks from within,” and is “not a fictional scenario,”, Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilan’i told members of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday.

Vilna’i briefed the committee on the state-wide drill, scheduled to begin on May 31. The threat of missiles hitting mainland Israel “is not unrealistic,” Vilna’i continued. “If a war breaks out, that is probably what would happen.”

According to Vilna’i, “In conducting this national home front drill we aren’t looking to scare anyone, but rather prepare ourselves for a threat which has its writing on the wall.”

The drill will include all emergency response teams, all government ministries as well as the entire civilian population. According to the military, people will be asked to choose secured rooms or bomb shelters, and ensure that they know what to do in the event of war.

During the exercise, 252 local councils and municipalities will open ‘crisis rooms’ and will respond to various simulated emergency scenarios.

The exercise will be the third home front exercise to be held since the Second Lebanon War in 2006 and since the Defense Ministry’s National Emergency Administration (NEA), which is responsible for setting national emergency standards, was established.